Search - Marin, Figueras, Lislevand :: Tonos Humanos

Overpowering Experience of Fiery, Passionate Spanish Song

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 12/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"José Marín (1618 - 1699): Tonos Humanos. Performed by Montserrat Figueras, soprano; Rolf Lislevand, baroque guitar; Arianna Savall, double harp; Pedro Estevan, percussion; Adela Gonzalez-Campa, castagnettes. Recorded in March and June 1997 at the studio of the Tibor Vargas Foundation in Sion/Switzerland. Total playing time: 67'03". Released in 1998 as Alia Vox AV 9802. Digipack with 44-page booklet in five languages.



When this CD was first released in 1998, it was greeted with acclaim by critics and was accorded "recommended" status by the magazine "Klassik heute". Hagen Kunze wrote: It is "Montserrat Figueras [who] makes this CD an overpowering experience, she performs with the passion of a Flamenco-Cantaora. I only know one comparison for this grandiose artiste: she is the Maria Callas of early music - unique like her, she combines a maximum of singing perfection with extreme intensity of expression". Even a casual listening will confirm this opinion. Marin's fiery songs about unrequited love here take on a life of their own in Montserrat Figueras's absolutely idiomatic interpretation, which manages to combine the individuality of these songs with the Spanish tradition in such a way as to make them instantly recognizable but, at the same time, fascinatingly novel. The accompaniment of guitar, harp, castagnettes and percussion is done with exquisite taste and just the right feeling for this music (and I hadn't realized before what a wonderful sound can be produced by combining guitar and harp); Pedro Estevan is an amazing percussionist and his unobtrusive arrangements are "just right". The Alia Vox recording is excellent, placing Montserrat Figueras firmly in the forefront but allowing every detail of the accompaniment to be heard.



A footnote for those who don't know: José Marin was one of the leading musical figures in Madrid during the second half of the seventeenth century. Although he stood in the employ of the King of Spain, he led an adventurer's life, being accused several times of murder and being sentenced to service in the galleys. Despite all this, his reputation as a musician remained unsullied and on his death he was praised as "exemplary"!"